When she started working as a hostess at a Red Lobster at age 16, Danielle Cleary didn't envision a restaurant career. She wanted to be a teacher.

Seventeen years later, Cleary is still in the restaurant business — and a teacher of sorts as well — as the general manager of the Olive Garden in Livonia.

The Canton Township resident, who has also run Olive Garden locations in Ann Arbor and Novi, oversees a management team of three people and a staff of more than 100 at the popular location on Middlebelt just north of Schoolcraft Road.

Cleary found that first job at the Red Lobster in Waterford suited her: It was close to home (she grew up in Pontiac), put her people skills to use (she was an usher at her church) and was familiar to her, as she had frequented it with her family.

Her company, Darden Restaurants, found something, too. Three years later, while employed at the Olive Garden in Auburn Hills, Cleary began climbing the company ladder, working as a hostess, server and trainer, and then moving into management.

"We are always looking to develop people," Cleary said recently at her restaurant. "You're able to be recognized for what you do."

She became a trainer who helped open new Olive Garden locations, traveling to the new spots to join a team that guided new hires for their first few weeks. She opened restaurants in Mt. Juliet, Tenn., and Sioux City, Iowa, as well as closer to home in Brighton.

Management also sent her to Italy for a week, in 2007, to absorb the culture and experience the cuisine there.

"It was really an exposure to the Italian culture and what we attempt to replicate in our restaurants," she said. "It was bringing our passion to life."

That Italian culture, she said, was warm, generous and welcoming, and she was always among people who made her feel a part of things, a part of the family.

Cleary also had management training locally and at the Olive Garden support center in Orlando, where Darden is based. (The Red Lobster brand was spun off from Darden several years ago.)

The Livonia Olive Garden staff is typically at work by 8 a.m., to start food preparation and make sure the restaurant is ready to open. The doors open at 11 a.m. for lunch.

(The food? Cleary's partial to Olive Garden's shrimp scampi and gives high marks to the lasagna and the linguine di mare.)

Cleary, who lives with a boyfriend and three children, said her company is respectful of personal and family time and that long hours, common in the restaurant business, and emergency phone calls while she's off duty aren't an issue.

"When we're at home we're at home. When we're at work we're at work," she said.

Still, she's passionate about her job, she said, and does what's needed to make sure diners are taken care of.

"I think you have to be passionate to work in the restaurant industry," Cleary said.

"We love what we do," said Karl Shaw, an Olive Garden director of operations in Michigan.

mjachman@hometownlife.com

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Twitter: @mattjachman

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Livonia Olive Garden general manager Danielle Cleary stops by to chat with customers, including Patricia Johnson and Barbara Bovia, right, during their April 27 lunch at the restaurant on Middlebelt north of I-96. Cleary has worked her way up to a management spot since she began as a hostess at age 16.(Photo: JOHN HEIDER | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)